problem splitting a $ in perl

joesbox · 08-29-2003, 08:11 PM

here is the background:
i am trying to write a web-based program that will work as a journal. i have the section that will write to the file; i have the section that will read the entire file and print it to the screen; now i am working on getting the search section working and am running into a prob.

journal file ex.:

Code:

Journal date:  Fri Aug 29 19:34:12 EDT 2003
I had a bla bla day and spent bla bla dollars getting bla a bla.
The bla yelled at me due to the fact that I am bla at bla.

subroutine snippit:

Code:

sub SEARCH {

	open (SEARCH, "</var/www/cgi-bin/journal.txt") ||
	print "<h1>Sorry, But your journal cannot be  found</h1>";
	$searchjournal = <SEARCH>;
	close (SEARCH);
	print $searchjournal;
}

the output to the browser is

Code:

Journal date:  Fri Aug 29 19:34:12 EDT 2003

when you would think that it would be

Code:

Journal date:  Fri Aug 29 19:34:12 EDT 2003 I had a bla bla day and spent bla bla dollars getting bla a bla. The bla yelled at me due to the fact that I am bla at bla.

i am trying to split on the "Journal date:\s\s" and leave each date and entry all in one element of the array

what i am planning on doing:
[code]
sub SEARCH {

open (SEARCH, "</var/www/cgi-bin/journal.txt") || print "<h1>Sorry, But your journal cannot be found</h1>";
$searchjournal = <SEARCH>;
close (SEARCH);
@entries = split (/Journal\sdate\:\s\s/, $searchjournal)
}

my theory should work but isn't. can someone point out what is wrong or where i should go with this??
thanks

vanquisher · 08-29-2003, 08:23 PM

that is because

Code:

       $searchjournal = <SEARCH>;

reads only the first line of the file, by default. however, you can fix it by removing the new-line character between the two entries, i.e between
Journal date: Fri Aug 29 19:34:12 EDT 2003 and
I had a bla bla day and spent bla bla dollars getting bla a bla.
The bla yelled at me due to the fact that I am bla at bla.

That should work. I made similar mistake many times and spent hours and hours banging my head as I couldn't see anything that went wrong. Tell me if it works out or not.

GabeF · 08-29-2003, 08:24 PM

You have to set one of perl's special variables to null before you can use the line

Code:

$searchjournal = <SEARCH>;

or else it stops with the \n. This link should help:
http://tlc.perlarchive.com/articles/perl/ts0001.shtml

Just a note...I found that on my first google search (hint hint)

joesbox · 08-29-2003, 08:47 PM

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
**bang {ouch} bang{ouch}**

i knew that rule GabeF. i just forgot about it. %$#@%$#@ i am a dork. i normally do look at the web and prior posts but i didn't know what to look for. thanks

and for your response vanquisher; that is a good idea but i wanted to make the prog able to have hard returns within the journal entry so that the writer could make different paragraphs. thanks anyway.

thanks for the quick response

zekko · 08-30-2003, 12:33 AM

@searchjournal = <SEARCH>;

print "@searchjournal\n";

or even:

foreach (@searchjournal) {
print "$_\n";
}

Kinda late response

joesbox · 08-30-2003, 08:51 AM

i tried that but that splits the file on the \n. i want the ability to put hard returns into the entry so that the person could place paragraphs into the entry. and i wanted the entire entry witht the date to be in one (1) element of an array.

btw, i got it to work using "undef $/;".

GabeF · 08-30-2003, 09:00 AM

That's great! You didn't sound like the type who doesn't do his homework

Don't hit your head too hard or you might forget again!

joesbox · 08-30-2003, 11:11 AM

thanks for making me feel better GabeF. i feel bad when i have to ask the question before i can search for the answer.